internet marketing

How to Make Stuff Happen

October 25, 2010 By Cara Lumen

I first became aware of an easy way to make stuff happen when I became a Reiki Master Teacher in New York City years ago. I had come back from being Certified, I was ready to teach and my thought was “how do I make this happen?” Then I realized I simply had to make it up – just the way I wanted it to be. So I picked up my calendar and started writing in dates for first degree classes and second degree classes – allowing enough time for there to be two first degree classes before there was a second degree class. That’s it. That’s the big secret. Simply schedule it.

Keep it realistic

I recently was asked to provide a whole year of training for a membership site. It involves 12 introductory calls on topics of interest that would introduce the upcoming six three-week telecourse. First I decided on the six telecourses, then I thought of topics that would lead into them. I picked a date on the calendar to begin and I had my schedule.

Then it occurred to me that if I’m preparing all of this material for a closed community I needed to find a way to leverage all the work into value for my own community. So once again, I pulled out my calendar and scheduled three teleclasses for the first half of the year accompanied by some free intro teleclasses to be offered to my own community. I made longer classes out of shorter ones and repurposed intro talks for the two communities.

And that’s when I begin to feel full up. The schedule looks great. I love to write teleclasses. And that’s a lot of work over a long period of time. As you make up your schedule be realistic about what you can do. Remember, scheduling it is only half the fun.

Schedule plenty of time to create the product

Fortunately I’m working two and a half months ahead on the teleclasses so I’m having a great time creating the courses because I’m not pressured. And I’m expanding a six week course I will give in January into six three week courses for the membership site so the material will only grow richer. And it will all turn into a book at the end of the year. Leverage every idea you have. Repurpose. Chunk up. Chunk down. One idea can show up in a lot of different costumes just like an actor in a play. The actor it the same, the role is different.

I love to make stuff up and I never schedule my creative time so that I feel pressured. Allow yourself time to do your very best – to make the most stimulating handouts, to find the richest resources, to outline the most fascinating intro calls. Work steadily. Schedule time to create. Make a project management schedule so you get written what you need to write – steadily, without pressure. Mark off whole mornings or afternoons so you can concentrate and get your work done in a flow of deep concentration. Enjoy your own creative process.

Make a strong marketing plan for each event

For me the fun stuff is in making up the course or writing the book. But I have made a list of what I have to do surrounding each and every event or product launch. It’s a template I use for each project. I have four sections: Creation, Participant Emails, Publicity and Promotion. I work in Word with a column to check off when each step is completed. These are the steps I take for a teleclass that can be translated into any product launch. Here’s how it is set up:

CREATION

Write landing page (I do this first to clarify my intentions. I tweak it after the product is complete)
Autoresponders set up to reply to those who purchase or enroll
Buy now button set up for the product on the landing page
Write the first draft
Have the interactive elements completed (handouts for a class)
Create Power Points if used
Complete the second draft
Create Student Participation page on line (This is where I deliver the handouts and homework and MP3s. It is a web page for the participants)
Put the Student Participation Page up – it is complete and ready for the course
Create five emails to promote the event or product to send to my community and contacts who might help promote

CLASS INTERACTION

Write instructions to be sent to students three days before which includes call in number and any post course instructions
Write email reminder of the class starting to be sent the day before

PUBLICITY

I start actively promoting six weeks out. There is an Early Bird special with a deadline. But even before that I have been talking about the product in my blog posts and emagazine to begin to get people interested.

Add announcement of product or course to web site
Put the landing page up
Post event date on blog & web site
Write in newsletter
Write Media Questions out
Put out press release

PROMOTION

Email to my community of Book Yourself Solid Coaches with Early Bird Special and ask them to promote it to their communities. Send out email promotional copy to make it easy for them to promote. (I’m lucky to have this group who are willing to help each other. This is different than sending to my list. See if you can develop a community of colleagues with similar target audiences who will help you cross promote.)
Post on FaceBook
Post on Twitter
Write six blog post discussing aspects of course & post them as continuous reminders of the upcoming event
Get scheduled on some radio shows
Find some new JV partners for the project
Contact others in person who may not be on my list to see if they will promote
Comp a person or two into the class. That helps you have people who you know will participate and feels supportive. If an ebook, send out some advanced copies and ask for a review.
Ask for testimonials after the course or after the book has been read. Put those on your landing page or in the front of your book.

PUBLICITY TO MY LIST

Statistics now say that people need to hear of something 24 or more times before they will buy. That’s why I start mentioning that I am working on the product a few months out to start an awareness in my community. I can’t bring myself to flood my community with emails so I got with this schedule.

First announcement to email list – six weeks out
Second announcement to email list 5 weeks out
Third announcement to list – Early Bird ends tomorrow
Announce with emagazine
Starts tomorrow email out (You’d be surprised how many people this email adds to your event.)

It’s like having two separate projects – one to create the product or service, the other to launch it. As you work on your schedule add these promotional steps to your list and leave time to get them done.

Why I love to make stuff up

Every time I write a new ebook or create a new telecourse I learn something new. It may be that I write a better landing page and thus strengthen my skills at that. It may be that I deepen my own knowledge while deciding how I want to teach a certain point. And always it is about the joy of preparing something that will serve others – that will give them information that will make a difference, or motivate them to take a bigger next step, or inspire them to know they can do more.

If you have an idea it is probably yours to do. And if you choose to do it simply put it on your calendar and start talking about it in your blog posts and emagazine to start creating interest and to get yourself committed to the project. Then do it. That’s how to make stuff happen.

Affiliate Links – One Way to Monetize Your Blog

April 24, 2010 By Cara Lumen

by Cara Lumen

Everyone wants to create income. And multiple streams of income are an important goal particularly when some of it is passive income. So it makes sense that we all want to monetize our blogs.

How to monetize your blog

One blogger loves bicycling so besides blogging about cycling he began reviewing bicycle products on his blog. Some were affiliate links some were not. His blog became so influential that manufacturers now send him products to review. The monetization was a natural extension of his desire to share his knowledge with others who share his passion. His blog came out of his passion. He simply loves to bike.

Another person did s similar thing with cameras. On his blog he kept providing how to tips to create better photographs. Organically he became a resource for product reviews and product sales and gradually his blog became monetize

You get the picture. How can you organically create money with your blog while staying in the spirit and integrity of your passion?

What does your target community need?

I’ve had a few affiliate offers that I’ve promoted for years. When I help people develop a web site I set them up on Blue Host because it has great service and great bandwidth. I suggest Easy Web Automation for the shopping cart because it can grow as big as your business and has everything you could possibly need. Practice Pay Solutions is the merchant account I use and recommend. And for recording audio and video I love Audio Acrobat. I use all of these myself and have for years.

All of these particular companies are core services that people who are building a web presence need. So it was very simple for me to join their affiliate programs and begin to recommend them. I use them myself; I think they are great, so I share those resources with others.

Now that I have added Magnetic Blog Builders to my services I recommend Word Press Thesis Styles which is a highly optimized theme , Thesis Styles because they are elegant and powerful and Scribe SEO which helps you optimize every posts.

And I have two learning opportunities that I love Teaching Sells which opens only occasionally and Third Tribe Marketing which is a great community of bloggers helping bloggers.

Only recommend products and services that you use or have thoroughly investigated so you know they are high quality and meet the needs of your target community.

How do you find affiliate links?

What products and services do you use right now? Do they have affiliate links? Sign up and list them on your resource page. Write how you use them in a blog post. If they fit your client base, make them part of your recommendations.

Look at other sites in your niche. What are people selling that fit your target community? Check out the biggest sites first. They may run advertising (if so, what sort), what affiliate promotions do they have? I’m not going to talk about advertising here because I don’t know much about it. Affiliate links are an easy way to start monetizing your blog. As you look at these sites start making a list of things that your community would appreciate knowing about.

Another way to find appropriate affiliate products and services is to type in Google “keyword affiliate product” and see what shows up. And you can also check out Commission Junction or PepperJam or e-junkie to see if there are relevant products listed for your niche. These sites want to know how you are going to promote the products – through blog, web content, email, etc.

When you find a product or service that is a match for your target community and sign up as an affiliate, within their documentation you will find simple e-mail links to use in your blog posts and emagazines and emails. And you will find banner links, usually with a variety of sizes you can put in your side bar or resource page. Just copy and paste the code and you’re in business.

There are people who create landing pages designed to simply sell a product they think they can easily monetize. They give affiliate marketing a bad name. I’m not talking about those people. I’m talking about the kind of referrals you would give to anyone in your community – something you know is good, gets results, and you have had personal experience with. Affiliate marketing for me is about passing along great recourses you believe in.

How do you promote your affiliate links?

Just as you would share your resources with a friend in person, you talk about the products as you blog. Or you may write a specific article on the topic. For instance, it’s easy for me to talk about shopping carts and merchants accounts when I am writing about blogging – those are things people need to along the line. I can write a post on choosing the right WordPress theme and mention both Word Press Thesis Styles and Thesis Styles. It’s important that you use and like what you are promoting so they can be organically and authentically mentioned.

My affiliate products are all listed on the resource page of both my blogs Passionately on Purpose and Magnetic Blog Builders along with other valuable resources that are not affiliate links.

Some of the products or services my readers will need most often are promoted on my sidebar.

I have a list of resources for my web presence clients. I write articles about them like What’s in Your shopping Cart, and How a Thesis Theme for WordPress can set you free and “Scribe is a Built In SEO Optimizer that Effortlessly Uplevels Your Game!”

I write content that gives my experience and then sends them to the site where the product is offered. Those sites are well structured to do the selling.

I’m very careful about what I send in my Passionately on Purpose emagazine I don’t want it to be a sale pitch, but I do want to give value. So as I find new resources, both free and affiliate, I include a one-time mention of them and then put them on my resource page. I could do more. I could mention it several times but I’d prefer to set up my editorial calendar to mention some of them in a planned cycle. People will be ready for them at different times.

If you want to set up separate web sites to promote a particular product, make the site as compelling and conversion optimized and as authentic as possible. Y At this point, I’d rather send them to a site that is focused on making the conversion than writing a new one myself. It’s a matter of my focus and time.

Here’s a simple trick for adding affiliate links to your blog post. I have all my affiliate links listed in a Word document labeled Affiliate Links in alphabetical order and I just copy and paste them into the blog post. That’s the same technique I use to fill my posts with links to past posts.

Oh yes, another way to promote your affiliate links is to write a post like this one!

What do you earn?

You’ll get emails from people saying they are making big bucks which is certainly something to aim for. But I think a lot of those are heavy duty promoters – which I am not. I’m in service so I am quite content to keep recommending products and services that I really like and use. However, once you decide to add affiliate links to your marketing strategy, you’ll be on the lookout and will keep discovering new ones to add.

Right now my affiliate income covers the cost of doing business – my shopping cart, my web host, my merchant account fees, and a couple of other business product and learning subscriptions that I use. But I’m upping my game around affiliate marketing. I’m going to keep looking for and letting people know about the products and services that will make a difference in their life and business. Authentically, from my own experience, from my own enthusiasm. That’s my version of monetizing my blog.

Why You Should Write Your Landing Page First

March 20, 2010 By Cara Lumen

by Cara Lumen

You have an idea for a new teleclass. It’s sort of dancing around you in the air, unformed, changing shape, but eager to come in. How do you capture your product ideas and begin to shape them? By writing your landing page first. Yup, before you even create the product you need to know 1) if there is a need for your product and 2) what exact needs your product will meet. And interestingly enough, writing the landing page will also let you decide things like how many weeks, and what price and what will be offered each week, because you have to write it all in the landing page.

Is there a need for it?

Before you spend anytime creating anything, and as hard as it is to do this when the idea is exciting, take time to see if it is really needed. And if so, by whom? And how many “whoms.” I have certainly written my share of things because I needed to write them and create a system for me to work the strategy, but ideally, you want others to want it too. So doing some research will let you know where your idea will fit in, who will buy it, and what it will do for those that do. All questions you have to answer in the context of your product as well as on your landing page.

What will you product do?

“What will the product do for me?” That’s the major question everyone asks, so you have to be clear about that and deliver those results in the product and talk about it on the landing page. As you write your landing page you are going to put yourself in the mind of the consumer and answer all the objections even before they are asked. Again, you need to handle objections on your landing page but you also want to address those objections in your product.

What will your product look like?

I don’t mean the cover or even the title, I mean how long is it? What topics does it cover? If it’s a class what will be covered in each class. You may or may not list that on your landing page but you certainly will pull out bullet points of benefits they will receive because of your content choices.

As you write your landing page, you start making choices. Yes, you want it to be a webinar; no you do not want to create transcripts of the conference calls. Yes, you want to create a workbook rather than individual handouts. What bonuses can you give? What added incentives like 20 minutes of personal coaching can you offer? You get the picture, when you write your landing page first you get to define your product and its intention very clearly before you write a single word.

A landing page makes you price out your offering, think up ways to bundle things together, find bonus items you can give to add value, and it makes you set up your shopping cart so you are ready to receive enrollments and/or sales. And create your thank you page.

One of the greatest gifts a landing page gives are the wonderful phrases that show up as you explain what you are going to accomplish. Sometimes titles show up, sometimes new segments come up, sometimes whole new product ideas appear.

A Landing Page is Magic

Writing a landing page is like waving a magical wand and having your product created right in front of you in a day’s time. You have content, you have a marketing plan, you have pricing, and you have structure—all because you wrote your landing page first.

Build Your Online Business with Positive Experiences and Great Results

February 27, 2010 By Cara Lumen

by Cara Lumen

All business is driven by interpersonal relationships. Whether it’s the helpful, cheerful grocery clerk, the patient, positive customer service representative, or the knowledgeable tech support person who can explain it so you understand it, we are all drawn to the people that give us the most positive experience and the best results.

In your business, that should be you.

How are you with people?

OK, you’ve decided you are ready to start an online business, now what? Since you ARE your business it will look a lot like you. Look at your life and see how you naturally relate to others. Are you one of those magical people that everyone loves to be around? Are you a wise, knowledgeable person that people seek for answers, are you an advice giver, a party giver, a 1:1 type of person? Are you a loner? Are you shy? Are you adventurous or conservative? How you naturally relate to others is a good place to start building the community you want to serve. Become aware of both your strengths and weaknesses in your relationships. You will build your business to take advantage of both.

It’s not about selling, it’s about serving

The ordinary standard for a successful business is how much you earn. I think the standard for a successful business is how well you serve, how many lives you change. So the first thing you want to do in developing your online business is to 1) decide on who you want to serve and 2) decide what you can and are willing to do for them.

Who do you want to invite into your community?

The old way of marketing is on the wane. A new, gentler, more connected form of interaction is emerging. We get to choose who we want to serve, who we want to interact with, who we want to help succeed. You’ll hear that called a “niche” but the new term is “community.” Feel what a difference that term makes in what you will do and how you will do it.

Another term I could do without is “Target Audience”. It sounds like we are going hunting. I like to think of it as “Interest Groups.” You are starting an interest group, a community of people who are interested in your topic. And that interest group will have specific needs, a specific vocabulary, and a particular way they like to be approached. The more clearly you are able to address that, the more people will recognize you as someone they want to connect with.

My interest group is made up of primarily boomer women who need or want to start a business for themselves and don’t know where to start. They want to help others, they are willing to learn, and they often have some business background they are ready to translate into a new online business. They are passionate about what they want to offer. Those are the people that make up my community, the ones who read my posts, and take my courses and come to me for coaching.

And the more I tune into them the easier it is for me to see what they need. I get to watch what is changing around them; I get to think about what is keeping them awake at night. Then I can decide how or if I would like to help them solve that problem.

See how gentle and organic this is?

Attract the people you are meant to serve

We are not meant to serve everyone, but the people we are to serve need us and it’s our job to help them find us. And once they do, we want to take care of them. And like any group of friends, they will ultimately call on us for our service or products and they will refer their friends to us. And suddenly, we are surrounded by like-minded people who need and want what we have to offer.

Go where your interest group is and hold up a big invitation

Now you know who you want to serve, you know what you want to offer them, but they don’t even know you exist. You have to go out and lay markers on the trail so they can find you. You have to invite them to come join your community. This can mean things like a web site that explains what you do, a blog that writes about what you think and know about your topic, a radio show that can be a commentary format or an interview format that offers your target audience insights and entertainment. It can be article submissions or teleclasses, or signature products like ebooks and audio books. It can be about going to networking groups, joining online communities, posting comments on blogs and forming collaborative partnerships. The type of invitation markers you lay on the trail depends on you and your talents and the interests of the people you serve.

Loyalty is priceless

Did you know that 80% of your sales will come from 20% of the people connected with you? That group of people are tuned into what you offer, they want to know and hear what you are saying and teaching and doing. They trust you. And they are ready to purchase from you. When you design your outreach material, your forms of invitation, fashion them for the people you can best serve. Once they have come into your community keep serving them well. Referrals are the best form of community building. And referrals come from positive interactions and great results.

Where do you start?

Begin with who you are and what you love. Start talking about your topic and writing about it and offering services around it. Get excited about it and share your thrill at how you are in service. That’s contagious. And as people begin to gather around you, take good care of them. Listen to them, be ready to anticipate or respond to their changing needs. Design new ways to serve them. Think of yourself as a valuable member of a global tribe – you serve those who need you and support them in their well-being. Build your online business with positive experiences and great results.

This is Part 2 of the How to Build an Online Business Series

Part 1: Are You Ready to Start an Online Business?

How to Choose Your Strongest Marketing Strategy

November 30, 2009 By Cara Lumen

Passionately On Purpose Radio with Cara Lumen, Your Idea Optimizer, who keeps you passionately on purpose while you make a difference in your world. As a Business Coach, Content Developer and Educator she talks about how to uncover your passion, define your purpose, identify your path, make money from what you already know and attract the people you are meant to serve. But most of all, she’ll help you believe you can!!! Join her Mondays on www.blogtalkradio.com/passionatelyonpurpose

This Show

Let’s face it, we are just naturally better at some things than others. Let’s find out what your strengths are and turn them into a powerful marketing strategy.

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